Introduction

I live with my husband and "designer" dog Honey in coastal Northern
California. We are about a mile and a half away from the Pacific Ocean but
at 800 feet where we have a filtered blue water view of the ocean through
the forest. We consider ourselves in a Mediterranean climate as we have
mild wet winters (it gets down to freezing but most years the ground does
not freeze hard) and dry summers, but being on the first ridge and this far
north of the equator we get a lot of rain during the rainy season (average
around 50-60 inches). My soil is acidic, nutrient deprived, decomposed
sandstone and rock. We have a lot of trees including redwoods and gardening
is a challenge. We are blessed with comfortable temperatures in summer, but
nights are almost always cool. It can get hot here on the ridge when it may
be 15 to 20 degrees cooler down below. If this happens for more than a day
or two, the fog rolls in. It is what we call nature's air conditioning.

Since I love to grow things from seed and experiment I have found some
plants that work: shrubs native to this area, Australian and South African
plants, and other Mediterranean basin plants like teucrium, lavandula, and
origanum. Ericaeous plants do well so I grow them too. I have been trying
to grow South African ericas from seed and it is a lot harder than growing
bulbs, but I am getting better at it thanks to some tips from Rod Saunders.

I heard Wayne Roderick say one day that he gave up trying to garden in the
redwoods and started planting bulbs. His theme is year round bloom without
extra water. I was already in love with bulbs, but that got my attention. I
started with South African and California bulbs. As I have made friends
with other bulb fanatics who have shared seed, bulbs, or enthusiasm for all
manner of geophytes I have gotten way out of control. I am trying to switch
myself over to learning how to grow what I grow well and not keep seeking
more, but it is a struggle. Like others have said my favorites are the ones
blooming, but I love Calochortus, Leucocoryne, Romuleas, Oxalis, Brodiaeas,
Dichelostemmas, Geissorhizas, Moraeas, Triteleias, Lachenalias,
Veltheimias, my native Alliums, Cyclamen... You get the picture. I could go
on. I have far too many pots, but also bulbs planted in the ground and
raised beds. I have a greenhouse which is measuring 104 at the moment, but
it measured in the 50ties last night and we can get 40ties in the summer at
night so tropical plants are never happy.

I also love looking for plants growing in the wild and am a part of two
hiking groups. One I do the planning for and make sure we go to all the
good flower places in spring and early summer. My area is very rural and we
have many places to walk. This past weekend we spied Lilium pardalinum just
opening (in a place the deer couldn't get it) and earlier in the week there
was a whole rocky bank covered with Allium dichlamydeum overlooking the
ocean to delight me. Lucky for me even though my husband does not like to
garden, he likes to go with me looking for plants in nature as does the
dog. And he has enjoyed meeting other bulb fanatics which is something else
I like to do.

I hope more of you will introduce yourselves. Like Paul I am learning more
about some people I thought I already knew as they describe their broader
garden interests.

Mary Sue